Scripture Luke 1:26-38
In the sixth month of
Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town
in Galilee,
to a virgin pledged to be
married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name
was Mary.
The angel went to her and said,
“Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at
his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.
But the angel said to her, “Do
not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.
You will conceive and give
birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.
He will be great and will be
called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of
his father David,
and he will reign over Jacob’s
descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked
the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy
Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow
you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
Even Elizabeth your relative is
going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to
conceive is in her sixth month.
For no word from God will ever
fail.”
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary
answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
Here ends this reading of the Word of God for the People of God.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Let us pray: Gracious God, may the words of my mouth and the
meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our Rock
and our Redeemer. Amen.
Message “Birthing A
Promise”
As you all know, I was the first
pregnant pastor we have had at Trinity Christian UCC. When you hired a single 40 year old woman, you
probably did not expect a pregnancy to be in our future today. But, we make
plans and God laughs. So, over the past year or so, you journeyed with me as I
experience pregnancy number two and you had your first experience of being
pastored to by a pregnant minister.
Pregnancies can be scary. There are things that can go wrong for
mom. There are things that can go wrong for baby. Physically, your body takes
on a life of its own – your joints become loose – your bones actually adjust
themselves into a different position – you gain weight. Your digestive system
goes haywire – nausea, vomiting, ugh. And, emotionally, because the hormones
are in hyper-drive, the mom is all over the place: happy, sad, depressed,
manic, numb…
Imagine having all of these pregnancy
symptoms and being Mary – young, innocent, and virginal. She would not have suspected the cause of the
symptoms because she was only engaged-to-be married. She probably was
overwhelmed and worried – why was her body acting so strange? Why did she feel
so odd? What was wrong?
Mary probably felt off-kilter. And,
then, the angel Gabriel showed up.
We imagine angels looking like they do
in Renaissance paintings – tall with beautiful human faces and white wings. But,
Biblical passages describe some angels has having four faces and some angels
having six wings. When the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, she seemed
shocked. She was greatly troubled by his
greeting. The second thing he said to her was for her to “not be afraid.” He
may have looked horrifying. Was she afraid because a man had just showed up in
her presence? Was she afraid because of how he looked? Was she afraid because
of the words he used to greet her?
And, then the angel shared the
shocking news that Mary was pregnant with the son of God. Mary, an unmarried young
woman, was pregnant…and she was carrying the Messiah. Which was a huge deal,
and anyone who received this announcement would be overwhelmed….Mary was no exception
– she was probably terrified and overwhelmed.
Instead of crying and running away, Mary
took the news well. She said: “I am the Lord’s servant,” … “May your word to me
be fulfilled.”
Mary handled this task better than most
of us would have handled it. After this
brief encounter with the angel, Mary went on to live out her calling to be the
mother of Jesus, the mother of the Messiah. Under her watchful eyes, Jesus grew
from a tiny helpless baby to be the savior of humankind.
In our lives, we often face obstacles that
seem impossible. The odds are stacked against us. In our lives, perhaps we
faced an academic challenge we thought we would never figure out. Or we sought
a job that we thought we would never be considered for. Or we searched for a
romantic partner and everyone we met seemed like a dud. Or we sought
reconciliation with someone we didn’t think would forgive us. Sometimes we face impossible obstacles, and
we don’t know how we will achieve them.
Mary possibly thought she was facing
an impossible situation. She was young, poor, unmarried, and from a little
village in the sticks. Yet, God gave her the strength to carry through with her
strange pregnancy, to count on Joseph who was just as unprepared as Mary, to
travel to Bethlehem when she was uncomfortably pregnant, to give birth in a
stable, to flee to Egypt and escape with her life and Jesus’ life by the skin
of her teeth, and then to raise Jesus even though any misstep could have drawn
the attention of the Roman authorities who would have probably killed Jesus to eliminate
the threat of the Jewish messiah. Mary overcame everything that she faced. Mary was courageous. And, every action Mary
took was infused with hope.
The Season of Advent is a season of
hope. Hope requires a lot of courage. Despite the challenges in her future,
when Mary talked to the Angel Gabriel, she felt a burst of hope. And, that hope
sustained her during her pregnancy and through the trying years of Jesus’
childhood. If we could control the outcome of our life’s challenges, we wouldn’t
need to hope. Hope is what sustains us when we are unsure of what is going to
happen. Mary had hope that the baby in her belly would change the world for the
better. We have hope that Jesus will still change the world for the better. Hope
helps us overcome challenges and get us through those situations that seem
impossible. Hope keeps us moving forward, even when we aren’t sure things will
work out the way we want.
In this season of Advent, we must
grasp hold of the Hope we have through our relationship with Christ. Whenever
we face challenges that seem impossible, we are not alone because God is with
us. God supports us, strengthens us, and guides us. With faith in Christ, we
believe our hopes will be fulfilled, and the impossible situations we find
ourselves in will become possible.
Let us work to share the hope of the season
with other people. Our waiting will not be in vain, because God is with us, and
the hopes and fears of all the years will be met in Jesus Christ.
Amen.
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